Iman Malhi's MIT Inspire Blog

On the MIT Inspire website, it clearly states that this blog must "Discuss any challenges you have encountered and if applicable, how you surmounted them."  Perhaps the biggest and most frustrating challenge I have encountered is not Writer's Block, but rather (as you may have guessed from the title of this blog post) is procrastination. Procrastination is a matter of self-control and motivation. Sometimes you can be very motivated to complete a task, but the self-control isn't there, or vice versa. This issue of procrastination in apparent in all sorts of jobs, in all sorts of people. In the most basic terms, procrastination is when you push off something that's unpleasant or difficult to do in exchange for doing something easier and perhaps more fun. For example, a majority of kids rather go ride their bike or play Nintendo than finish their homework. Now that you know the issue, you must be wondering how I "surmounted" it. Quite frankly, I haven...

Writer's Block noun a psychological inhibition preventing a writer from proceeding with a piece Writer's Block. The hopelessness of staring at a blank screen, not knowing how and where to begin.  I  have my data and research nearly complete. But putting that data into words, and explaining how the data correlates to each other seems extremely difficult, at least to me. I'm not quite sure how to begin. I suppose my first job is to start writing the Abstract and then focusing on actually writing the paper.  Scientists aren't quite sure what causes Writer's Block, or mental blocks of any kind. I hypothesize that Writer's Block is caused by a mix of being too distracted to write and not knowing what to write. Writing a research paper shouldn't be this convoluted (tedious and time-consuming, maybe, but not difficult). But I personally have always had problems with writing in general. Even these blog posts are unusually difficult for me to write. ...

I've decided that it would be more practical to avoid focusing on specific countries for my paper, instead, I've decided to write a paper called  “ Does culture affect how schools operate and how the public values education ?" Perhaps I'll alter the title a bit in the future. I know I've been changing the premise of my paper quite a few times now. But I want my paper to be genuine, creative, and the best it can possibly be. My paper is going to question why and how Asian-Americans GPAs and the highest salaries in America. And why Portugal has the highest percent of University Graduates out of all the countries in the World. Does the culture you were brought up in affect how you view education? And why? What are the factors that contribute to high academic performance? And does this translate into the country's workplace as well? My paper will potentially answer these questions and more. Thanks for reading. Please leave any suggestions/criticis...

As stated in my previous post, I've decided to shift the focus of my paper to answer the question " D o es the overall difficulty of schooling in a country result in more successful people ?" Here is a list of the countries I've decided to research & report on. 1.) Finland Why : Finland is widely regarded as having the best public education system in the world. School in Finland are much less stressful and hectic than the schools of other countries. But, that begs the question, is school in Finland more effective in creating successful, productive people? There are differences of opinions, but hopefully, I will know the truth by the end of my research. 2.) South Korea Why : South Korea is infamous for its rigorous schools and the amount of extremely overwhelming studying students are pressured into doing. But, Korea is also one of the smartest countries in the world. But are the majority of people successful? And is the demanding school schedule worth it?...

As the title states, I've decided to alter the focus of my research paper. Originally, my paper was to highlight the differences of schools based on culture. But now, I've decided to shift the purpose. Now, I plan to have a paper (name to be decided) on the question " Do more difficult schooling systems result in more successful people ?" For example, South Korea has a notoriously difficult education system. Does that mean South Korea produce more successful people per capita in comparison to other countries? America, on the flip side, is known for its mediocre school system. But, does that mean America is less likely to be home to intelligent people? I disagree. My hypothesis: Countries with more difficult educational systems are not more likely to have more successful people per capita. I believe success depends heavily on personal willpower and how you grew up. I intend to begin researching my paper tomorrow. My timeline looks a bit like this: December 17th...

Every research paper requires research. Some people gather data through other studies already conducted. Others gather data through experiments. Currently, I am gathering information for my paper by conducting a survey. Here is the link to my survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S5K8TM2 I have gotten 39 responses so far, ranging from the Netherlands to Japan. The bulk of my responses have stemmed from Europe. To avoid corrupt data, I plan to get more representation from other countries. My study is aimed at students - from middle school students to college. One question on my survey asks "How satisfied are you with your country's education system?' I decided to graph the answers I have so far. USA -  3.6/5 Americans seem to generally have a moderate to high view of their education system. A majority of Americans voted a "4" on the 5-point-scale. The median score was about 3.6 out of 5. NETHERLANDS - 4.2/5 Residents o...